1. Field of the Invention
The present invention refers to an electric heating device comprising a heater housing in which a partition separates a circulation chamber, through which a medium to be heated can flow, from a connection chamber in which electrical connections of a PTC heating element introduced into a recess of a heating rib projecting from the partition into the circulation chamber are exposed, wherein the PTC heating element has at least one PTC element and strip conductors lying against it at both sides, of which at least one strip conductor is covered with an electrical insulation layer.
Such an electric heating device is e.g. known from EP 1 921 896 A1.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electric heating devices of the above-mentioned type are above all used in automotive vehicles. This includes the possibility of installing an electric heating device of such a type in an electrically driven automotive vehicle. Such automotive vehicles have an electrical system voltage different from that of automotive vehicles driven by internal combustion engines, for which an internal power supply of 12 V is enough.
Thus, there is an increasing demand for offering electric heating devices used for automotive vehicles, which are configured to be electrically insulating particularly with respect to the environment. Due to the self-regulating properties of the PTC elements this demand is diametrically opposed to the requirement to allow the PTC element to be impinged as freely as possible by the medium to be heated so as to dissipate as best as possible the heat generated by the PTC element and thus to exploit as best as possible the performance of the PTC element.